POST: "John Raley to judge: Never again show poor judgment on DNA," by Nancy Petro, published by the Wrongful Convictions Blog on February 20, 2014:
GIST: "When John Raley met Michael Morton and became convinced of Morton’s innocence, Raley committed to doing whatever he could as a pro bono lawyer to bring truth to a terrible injustice. It would take years. Morton had been convicted of the 1986 bludgeoning murder of his wife Christine and sentenced to life in prison. But he was unwavering in claiming his innocence. And as it turned out, he was telling the truth. Justice was delayed for Morton for twenty-five long years, six years longer than his exoneration could have taken if prosecutors had been cooperative in the review of this case. Unfortunately, Raley, Morton, and Innocence Project lawyers met only obstruction from the Williamson County (Texas) prosecutors. Two of the “hard-on-crime” officials who were instrumental in the original conviction or in delaying the post-conviction search for truth, paid a price for their decisions. In a guest column (here) in the Austin American Statesman, Raley has asked a third official, now a judge, to take responsibility for his role.".........The assistant district attorney who wrote the briefs and made the arguments opposing the DNA testing in the Morton case was Doug Arnold, described today on his campaign website as “a 20-year veteran of the Texas Court System.” Arnold is running for reelection for County Court-at-Law 3. He has a challenger in the Republican March 4 primary election but no opposition in the general election. In his letter to the citizens of Williamson County, Raley notes that he is not speaking for anyone but himself, and he is not endorsing any candidate. He is, however, asking the judge to step up and make his intentions clear.
Raley is right to ask Judge Arnold to “publicly accept responsibility for his active role in opposing Michael’s search for truth,” and to express his hope “that Judge Arnold will make it clear, publicly, that he will never again oppose DNA testing of evidence that would have been tested by law enforcement if the crime had happened today.”
The entire story can be found at:
http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/02/20/john-raley-to-judge-never-again-show-poor-judgment-on-dna/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
